I want to commend the Government for finally mustering the resolve to pump out vaccine certificates and mandate their use in high-risk settings. 

If the Prime Minister stays true to her timetable, these certificates, their use and the mandates will start going live in November. 

Some will see this as a big stick, others a big carrot. Frankly, it's both. It’s the passport to leading a fuller life with more doors open and greater access in a Covid-world. 

And it’s the sort of measure that has been sorely needed to help drive impetus to speed up the vaccination uptake. 

For the cavalier stragglers, the apathetic and the hold-outs, it’s the jolt they need to jolly them into action. 

Ardern has confirmed that a vaccine certificate will be a compulsory pre-condition of entry for large-scale, and she’s right to single out summer festivals. That will wake up some people. 

Alongside the mandated high-risk settings the Government specifies, the private sector will play a huge role, given they can voluntarily make these certificates a condition of entry. Many will. And they will have the legal protection to do so. 

I trust Air New Zealand rise to the occasion and elect to make a vaccine certificate a condition of carriage on domestic flights before Christmas. Ditto for the Cook Strait Ferries. 

Jacinda Ardern has ruled out the need for these certificates to be used for the likes of accessing healthcare services or supermarkets. 

I agree with Judith Collins. If a supermarket operator wants to make them a requirement to enter the store, that should be their call. It’s a private business. 

Yes, the hardcore holdouts will purse their lips and blast me with texts that this is oppressive state control. The dystopia. 

It’s actually a fork in the road, and the route you take is your call. You can either get with the programme, get jabbed and enjoy the fruits of a freer, fuller life with open access.  

Or you can choose to stay aloof, or be bloody-minded, or pack a sad, and narrow your horizons in your own self-imposed hermit kingdom. That’s your choice.